Latest Issue of the American Journal of Play Available Online for Free

Latest Issue of the American Journal of PlayExplores Play in the Age of InformationNow Accessible Free Online at journalofplay.org.

How has computation changed play? In the latest issue of the American Journal ofPlay, Miguel Sicart, associate professor at the Center for Computer Game Research at IT University Copenhagen, explores the relationship between computation and play in the Age of Information.

Sicart establishes that play describes the creation of worlds with other players and often with the aid of props such as games or toys. Play is not valuable for its utility, but rather for its own purposefulness. Sicart claims that computers too are valuable beyond their immediate utility. Sicart focuses on the concept of reontologization—the process of transforming information. Computers have fostered “a transition from analogue to digital data” and have, therefore, created a new world. Play is also reontologizing because it is appropriative, autotelic, and expressive. Play translates a situation, context, space, and time into the scene or instrument of play, has its own negotiated purpose, and is produced or performed with a personal touch. Just as computers have created a world in which we consume information differently, play creates a world in which we can express ourselves in a new way. Such similarities explain the merging of computation and play in the rise of video games.

Sicart frames his ideas with the stories told in the classic novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Quixote creates and inhabits an imaginary world in permanent clash with the actual world. Sicart believes that to comprehend the complexity of play, we must understand Quixotean Play: play capable of engaging with and appropriating reality regardless of resistance. Recognizing play within this new context will allow us to understand play as a form of expression in the Age of Information.

35 Years of Outdoor Retailer

James Moss JD, Author

Recognized as the Go to Lawyer by the Outdoor Recreation Industry

The outdoor industry’s favorite lawyer, Moss has been known to don a toga at a show party and he learns from what he observes on the show floor. “Attending a trade show year after year allows you to watch the industry evolve, grow, change and sometimes shrink,” he says. “It shows you new sports, new activities, and new ways to get sued. Outdoor Retailer is both a barometer and an education in the outdoor recreation industry.”